Fun in First!

It was a gorgeous day today!! We couldn't resist the weather, and decided to take our learning outside! That's right! Whenever it is nice out, we do as much as we can with our outdoor classroom! After the spelling/phonics lesson, students were able to choose to work inside or outside on their independent practice. Students are learning to choose to work wherever they are able to best focus, enjoy their time, and get their work completed. Some students decided to stay in, and the majority decided to soak up a little Vitamin D while practicing handwriting and reading/writing words. Check us out!

We also started one of our most important independent work stations today.....READ TO SELF! This will be part of our "Daily 5" stations where students work independently on becoming better readers and writers while Mrs. Powell teaches small group reading instruction. Today was our first step in that direction. We are working toward reading fifteen-TWENTY minutes, uninterrupted, independently! We will track our progress and celebrate when we have reached our goal! It is definitely a team effort to reach our minute goal as an entire class!

First grade is a critical year for reading development, so be on the look out for lots of quick tips and tricks to help your growing reader! Even though they will soon be taking off on their own and reading all sorts of things, they will still need the grown ups in their lives to support them in lots of different ways as a reader! Here are a few photos of us in our cozy classroom, enjoying the 'Read to Self" station.